


An Ealing Comedy

by Rokesmith



Category: Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-03
Updated: 2015-04-03
Packaged: 2018-03-21 03:21:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3675513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rokesmith/pseuds/Rokesmith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rani and Clyde, and the steps they take together. Fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Pair

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The Sarah Jane Adventures are property of the BBC.
> 
> Author’s Note: This story – which is really a sequence of five loosely connect ficlets – was written because one of the many tragedies of the series’ end is the lack of closure for the characters and their development. We may never know where Clyde and Rani were heading or how they’d get there, so I felt compelled to speculate on what might have happened. I’ve done my best to reconcile this with the events of the series and other things that Clyde and Rani would probably have been dealing with at the time that the episodes didn’t have time to cover. As such, it contains minor spoilers for fourth and fifth season of the show. 
> 
> A Note on the Title: The film studios located in Ealing have become synonymous with the comedies they produced in the fifties. However, in this context, ‘comedy’ is meant in the Shakespearean sense: a light, ultimately happy story about lovers coming together, such as 'Much Ado About Nothing'.

_After ‘The Empty Planet’_

“Clyde, I don’t get why you want to go see a film about aliens attacking Earth. Don’t you get enough of that, you know, normally?”

“Yeah, so?”

Rani sighed. “I don’t mind a film, but isn’t there anything else on?”

“Like what?” Clyde responded. “Pretty-boy vampires and teen wizards?”

“You’re the one who’s got them all on DVD.”

“Just in case my cousins come round.”

“Sure.”

Clyde didn’t answer, he just stopped and pointed down one of the roads that led through Ealing town centre. “Come on, Rani.”

“Cinema’s that way,” she waved in the other direction.

“Yeah, but pizza’s this way!” Clyde called back.

“Boys,” Rani said to herself, and followed him.

Twenty minutes later, they were sitting over a shared Hawaiian pizza looking out of the window at the Saturday afternoon shoppers trail past in different directions. Rani found herself looking up every few minutes, just to reassure herself they were still there. Then Clyde glanced through the window too, caught her eye and they shared an awkward smile and went back to their lunch.

“So why are you so keen to go see this film?” she asked Clyde in the gap between slices. “We’ve both seen alien invasions for real.”

“So’s everyone else,” Clyde answered. “But they keep making them.”

Rani sipped her drink. “But why do you want to go see this one? Honestly?”

“Because this one’s about some American fighting aliens with a whole squad of Marines and the entire US military behind him. And last week you and me saved the world by ourselves with just Sarah Jane’s sonic lipstick.”

“So you just want to sit there and be smug?”

Clyde grinned. “Yeah. Personally, I hope when they get around to making the movie about us, they cast Will Smith to play me.”

“Oh yeah?” Rani responded. “And what about me and Luke?”

“Luke would be… who’s the guy who played Spock in the last _Star Trek_ movie? Him. And you…” He looked carefully at Rani. “Kira Knightly.”

“Oh, thanks a lot.”

Clyde just grinned over his pizza at her and, as always, Rani smiled back.

“So what about this new rom-com then?” she asked. “I hear it’s meant to be quite good.”

“Rani, romantic comedies fail their own definition. They aren’t romantic, and they aren’t funny.”

“And what would you know about romance?”

His smile softened, and Rani found her cheek tingling where he’d kissed her before running away from the robots. He hadn’t mentioned it afterwards, and Rani had spent the last week telling herself that it was just something that had happened in the heat of the moment and resolved not to say anything if he didn’t.

“Yeah… well…” Clyde said awkwardly, “I don’t take lessons on saving the world from movies so I don’t see why I should take them seriously on anything else either.”

“So what are we going to see then?”

Clyde sat back. “I miss Luke. If he were here, we’d have a tie break.”

“I’ll tell him you said that. And anyway, he’d just tell you that there’s no point in going to see how Hollywood thinks you should fight an alien invasion.”

“But he wouldn’t want to go see a rom-com either.”

“How do you know? He’s a softie, is Luke.” She let Clyde stew for another moment and then smiled. “Okay, a compromise. How about that film with Colin Firth playing the king with the stutter? I was going to see that with my dad but I don’t mind seeing it twice, and you might like it. You said you liked Geoffrey Rush.”

“When he’s a pirate, yeah.” Clyde sighed, then nodded. “Alright, I trust you. I think. And if your dad likes it, it’ll give me something to talk to him about next time I’m sent to his office.”

“I’m sure he’ll love that.”

“Come on then, let’s go see when it’s on.”

“Yeah, hang on.” Rani reached into her handbag, felt around for a moment and then looked inside. “Damn, I think I left my purse at home. It must be in my backpack.”

Clyde shrugged. “That’s alright. I can pay for your half.”

“But what about the film?”

“I think I’ve got enough for that… yeah.”

“Clyde,” she said.

“What?”

A touch of uncertainty crept into her voice. “Clyde… there’s a word for when two people go out for a meal and a movie but only one of them pays.”

“Oh…” Clyde looked at her carefully. “But this isn’t… that, is it?”

Rani forced a laugh. “Of course not. It’s just… us, like always. I’ll pay you back when we get home, yeah?”

“Sure.” Clyde dropped some money onto the table. “Come on then, let’s go see C-C-Colin F-F-Firth.”

“That’s not funny, Clyde.”

“Yeah it is. You just don’t appreciate my genius.”

“Whatever.”


	2. Still Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel I should acknowledge that this idea has been addressed at least twice before by other authors, as well as the famous scene from 'Titanic', which served as my direct inspiration for this particular spin on it.

_After ‘Sky’_

Clyde found Rani at the beginning of the lunch break. She looked up at him over a copy of _All the President's Men_ , waiting to see what was important enough for him to come into the library to look for her.

“I need help with some homework,” he said.

“Surprise, surprise. What is it this time? I’ve got my own homework to do, you know.”

“Art,” Clyde answered.

“Since when do you need help with art?”

“We got given this art homework last week to prepare for our coursework. We have to do a picture of someone important to us and write five hundred words about why we’re drawing them.”

“So what do you want my help with?” Rani asked, then her eyes widened. “Oh! Me? You want to draw me? Not your mum or Sarah Jane or Luke?”

“I can’t hand in a picture of my mum,” Clyde responded. “There’d be no end to the grief I’d get. Sarah Jane’s busy and you can’t draw someone over a webcam.”

Rani nodded. “Okay, so when’s this due in?”

“Tomorrow,” Clyde told her. “So d’you want to come over tonight after school? My mum’s going out with some friends.”

“Sure,” Rani said.

She arrived exactly on time at seven, still wearing her school uniform. He hung her coat up for her and she accepted the offered glass of coke.

“So hang on,” she said, finishing the drink. “If this is due in tomorrow, why’d you only ask me today? Did you think I’d say no?”

“I’ve been busy, haven’t I?” Clyde responded. “Helping Sarah Jane with Sparky. Adopted aliens don’t teach themselves how to be normal teenagers. Trust me, you should have seen Luke before I showed him how to be cool.”

Rani shook her head. “One day I’d like to hear the other side of that story. Okay, so where do you want me?”

“Upstairs,” Clyde replied. “I couldn’t get my drawing board through the door without taking one of the legs off so it’s still in my bedroom…”

He tailed off. There was a long moment before Rani sighed.

“Okay, whatever. But you’d better have cleaned it or opened the windows or something.”

He led her up the stairs and into his room. “You’ll have to sit there,” he said, pointing to the bed and the pile of cushions in the corner he’d borrowed for her to lean against. “There’s not much room.”

Her eyes flickered over the drawings pinned to the walls. “Well, it’s cleaner than I expected,” she remarked. “Here?”

She settled herself on the bed, shuffled backwards to rest her back against the cushions, and adjusted them to stop herself from slipping sideways. Then she stretched her legs out and dropped her hands to her sides.

“Do you want me to… do anything?”

Clyde looked up from arranging the paper on the board. “Just whatever’s comfortable. I only have to draw you from the waist up.”

“Right...”

She gave him a quick, nervous grin and shifted awkwardly. A few more minutes of adjustments passed in silence before she let out a slow breath and started to relax. Clyde gave her another moment to make sure she was at ease and then reached for his pencil.

He started with gentle, faint strokes of the pencil across the paper to mark her silhouette: her oval face, her slender neck, the loose lines of her arms from her shoulders down to where they met in her lap, the slight arch of her back against the cushions. Then he started filling in the details: her delicate ears, her open collar, the disorganised creases of her starched white blouse and the track of her tie as it trailed down from her throat to her stomach. Her hands were elegant and soft, resting in her lap, and she’d intertwined her fingers to keep them still. Her coffee-coloured hair was parted on the right; her fringe swept sideways over her forehead while the rest of it was held in a thick ponytail that tumbled down over her left shoulder.

He left her face till last, staring at her for a long, silent moment over the board, determined that it should be perfect. He followed the sloping path of her nose. Her wide, almond-shaped eyes seemed almost black, but they were bold and bright as he traced first their outlines and then used his fingertips across the pencil strokes to replicate the patterns inside them. They never left his face, watching him as he watched her. Gentle touches added her long lashes and bolder strokes marked out her brows. Her pink lips were full, glossy, and curved upwards in the faintest of smiles. There were soft hints of laughter lines around her mouth and dimples on her cheeks. He ran his thumb delicately over the paper, softening the line of her jaw.

He piled stroke upon stroke, detail upon detail, never speaking and never entirely looking away from her as he shaped the mass of lines into something that captured everything that was unique about her and held it on the paper, right down to the last caresses to mark out the patterns of shadow and shade on her cinnamon skin. Finally, when he was sure it was perfect, he picked a spot just above her right shoulder and carefully wrote the only word he could think of that summed her up: Rani.

“There,” he said quietly.

“Are you finished?” she asked. “Can I see?”

“Of course.”

She scrambled up off the bed and leant over his shoulder to look. Her hair trickled over his cheek and he could feel her breath on his neck. For a long moment, she didn’t speak.

“Is it alright?”

“Clyde,” she breathed, “it’s gorgeous. That’s amazing.” She turned her head slightly. “Before you hand it in, could you photocopy it or something? I’d really like one.”

“Sure.” Clyde nodded.

“I promise not to tell my dad where I was when you drew it.”

“Yeah,” Clyde said. “Don’t think he’d take that one too well.”

“He’d hit the roof.” She patted him on the shoulder and straightened up. “It’s getting late. I’d better get home before he does that anyway. You going to be alright with the writing bit?”

“I’ll think of something,” he replied. “Do you… want me to walk you home?”

Rani smiled softly. “I’ll be fine. Thanks, though. I’ll see you in school. Say hi to your mum when she gets home.”

He listened to her skip down the stairs and then the faint sound of the front door opening and closing. Then he dug out his laptop and flopped onto the bed where she had been sitting. He sat there, watching the blinking cursor of an empty text document for five minutes and then wrote _Rani Chandra is one of my best friends_.

“Nah. Sounds like I’m eight.”

_Rani Chandra is special._

“Come on Clyde, you can do better than that.”

He looked at the inadequate words for another few moments and then picked up the portrait. He let his eyes trace over the lines, and then sighed and sat back. He put the picture down next to him and finally started to write in earnest. This time, he started with the truth.

 _Rani Chandra is beautiful_ …


	3. Offers

_After ‘The Man Who Never Was’_

“Sarah Jane! Sarah Jane!”

Rani pulled open the door to number 13 and dashed inside. There was no response. She closed the door behind her and followed the sound of the television. She found Sky in the living room, watching Professor Brain Cox’s latest show about the wonders of the universe.

“Hi, Rani!” the girl looked up. “Is it true that all the stars we see at night are so far away that some of them aren’t even there anymore?”

“Yep,” Rani answered.

“So… which ones?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you can ask the Doctor if you ever meet him. Is Sarah Jane in?”

Sky shook her head. “She had to go out. A big newspaper wants to reprint the article she wrote about the homeless.”

“So she left you alone?” Rani asked. “Although… you’ve not got a bad looking babysitter there.”

“Clyde’s upstairs,” Sky told her. “He wanted to talk to Luke. He said he didn’t need to watch this because he knew it already.”

“Then I’ll go ask him about the stars,” Rani said.

She found Clyde in the attic, leaning over the central table as he carefully outlined the next adventure of the Silver Bullet.

“Sky’s got a question about the stars. I told her you’d answer it since you apparently know everything.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to talk to Sarah Jane. What about you?”

“Waiting for Luke.” Clyde indicated the dormant computer. “Figured he’s more likely to answer if he thinks it’s his mum calling. What did you want to tell Sarah Jane?”

Rani pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket. “I got in! UCL made me an offer. All I need are two Bs and an A and I’ll be studying history there next year!”

“History? I thought you wanted to be a journalist.”

“Nobody who really wants to be a journalist actually does a journalism degree,” Rani told him. “Sarah Jane said she got started with nothing but a history A-level.”

“Looks like you’ve got it all sorted out.”

Rani’s smile faltered. “Yeah. What about you? Are you going to get a job or something while you work on your comics?”

Clyde shook his head. “No.”

“Well, you’ve got to do something. I mean, you’re comics are great but you can’t live off them.”

“I’ve got a letter too,” Clyde said.

He reached into the side pocket of his backpack and handed her an envelope. “I got this today. That’s what I was going to tell Luke about.”

Rani turned the envelope over. It bore the seal of the London University of the Arts. She unfolded the letter inside. She read it twice, just to be sure, and then threw her arms around Clyde’s neck.

“An interview for a graphic design course? Clyde, that’s brilliant!” She held onto him for a few seconds and then let go and gave him a quizzical look. “When did you apply for this?”

Clyde took a step back and sat down again. “Sarah Jane helped me, while I was talking to her for her article. Seeing all those people on the streets, Rani. They’d never have a chance to be… anything, ever. And I did. I had a chance and I didn’t want to waste it.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you’d applied for this?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “We haven’t really talked much lately. And then there was the Serf thing. And I didn’t know if there was anything to tell you anyway.”

Ran nodded. “Yeah, things have been a bit weird since… you got cursed. And I’m sorry about that. But I still would have wanted to know. I would have been happy for you.”

“Would you?”

“Of course. I mean, it’ll be great. If you’re at St Martin’s and I’m at UCL we’ll still have plenty of time to see each other. Are you going to stay at home?”

Clyde shrugged. “Hadn’t really thought that far ahead. But yeah, probably. Can’t really afford accommodation on top of the tuition fees and someone’s got to help Sarah Jane and Sparky next time aliens invade. And anyway, my mum still needs some help around the house.”

Rani pulled up a chair, sat down opposite him and said softly, “You’re not your dad, you know.”

Clyde looked up sharply. “What?”

“You’re not like him,” she went on. “Nobody’s going to think you’re abandoning them if you go off to university. Not me, not Sarah Jane and not your mum. I bet she was thrilled when you showed her that.”

“Yeah… she was.”

“And you remember how happy we all were for Luke when he got into Oxford. I mean, even if you wanted to go further away than Central London, like Manchester or Edinburgh or somewhere, we’d miss you but we’d want you to be happy. You wouldn’t be letting us down.”

“Yeah, but what about…”

“What about what, Clyde? What’s wrong?”

“Ellie.”

Rani dropped her head. “You still miss her.”

“Yeah. And now she’s off who knows where thinking I just left her.”

Rani took a deep breath. “Clyde, you had to. You had to save the world. The whole world. Including Ellie. And…” she hesitated, then steeled herself and went on, “Ellie can’t have known you that well.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because if she had, she’d have known that nothing in the world would have stopped you from keeping your promise and coming back for her. You don’t abandon people you care about.”

Very slowly, Clyde started to smile. “Thanks, Rani.”

Rani returned the smile. “What are friends for?”

Behind them, the computer started to beep.

“That’ll be Luke, then,” Clyde remarked.

He flipped on the webcam. The screen came to life just in time to see Luke saying something to someone just off the edge of the picture. Then he turned back and blinked in surprise.

“Clyde! Rani! I thought it was mum.”

“Yeah, that was his idea,” Rani said, and then continued before Clyde started protesting his innocence. “We’ve got some great news!”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I’ve got an offer from UCL and Clyde here applied to St Martin’s without telling anyone and now he’s got an interview there.”

“Oh… oh that’s great! Good luck with the interview, Clyde.”

Clyde grinned. “I don’t need luck, Lukey-boy. I can charm anyone. It’s a gift.”

“Yeah?” Rani shook her head. “Well, why don’t you see if you can charm Sky away from the telly so she can come and say hi to her brother?”

“Sure.” Clyde nodded, then hesitated. “Umm… Luke, you don’t happen to know if there are any stars we can see that aren’t really there anymore, do you?”


	4. Petrichor

_After Christmas_

“I still don’t get why we’ve got to do this today, Rani. It’s freezing.”

“Because the sales are almost over. Half the bargains will be gone as it is. I want to get some new stuff, and you need a new jacket, by the looks of that old thing.”

Clyde scowled. “It’s not old. It’s just been covered in bits of Slitheen once too often.”

“Either way, you need a new one. It barely fits you anymore.”

“Yes, mum. I wish Luke was here.”

“He’s got uni mates to spend time with. He hasn’t seen them since the holidays started. Anyway, I’m not going shopping with two boys.”

“But one boy’s okay, is it?”

“Not any boy. Just you, Clyde. This way, I’ll have a new top or something to wear when we meet Luke’s mates tonight.”

“The ones he said he’d told all about us? I didn’t like the way he said that.”

“No… me neither.”

They pushed the department store’s heavy glass doors open and shivered in the warm air. Clyde pulled his hands out of his jeans pockets and looked around. Rani unbuttoned her heavy winter coat and shoved her gloves into her handbag.

“Come on.” She pointed. “Girls’ clothes this way.”

“Why do we have to go there?”

Rani gave him a look of mock shock. “And I thought your mum raised you to be a gentleman, Clyde. Ladies first.”

Clyde muttered something under his breath, standing resolutely still as she walked off. She’d taken eight steps before he shoved his hands back in his pockets and followed her.

“You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to,” Rani told him, scanning a rack of tops for one in her size.

“If I go home, my mum’ll just make me do more revision for the mocks,” Clyde responded. “We’ve spent far too much time revising this holiday.”

“Wait till Easter,” Rani muttered. “There, what do you think of this one?”

Clyde shook his head. “Not your colour.”

“You sure? I think it’ll look alright.”

“Trust me, Rani. I’m an artist. I know colour. That one.”

Rani put the top back, grabbed the one Clyde was pointing at and held it up thoughtfully. “I never thought I’d be taking your advice on clothes.”

“Hey, I’m a man of many talents.”

Rani smiled. “Okay. Now I need a top for tonight and a skirt to go with it. This way.”

Twenty minutes later, she swept barefoot of the changing rooms wearing her selected top and a matching skirt over her jeans. “What do you think?”

“It’s great.”

“You sure?” Rani turned her head to check her reflection. “You’re not just saying that so I won’t spend ages picking something else?”

“Rani, you look… fantastic.”

“Okay then. This it is.”

After that, they went upstairs and walked down the lines of coats from blazers to trench coats and back again.

“You’ve got to pick something,” Rani said eventually. “You’re taking longer than I did.”

Clyde shrugged. “I don’t know. I can either look like I work in a bank, or a garage, or in a black and white spy movie.” He took a last look at the options and then back at Rani. “Why don’t… why don’t you pick something?”

“What, seriously?”

“Yeah.” Clyde nodded. “It’s not like I have to buy it if I don’t like it.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.”

She walked slowly back down the line of coats, examining the choices. After a minute’s thought, she pulled a black leather jacket in Clyde’s size and handed it to him.

“Try this one.”

He put the jacket on, looked in the mirror and smiled. “Cool.”

“Yeah,” Rani agreed. “It makes you look… heroic.”

“Heroic? Really?”

“Well… a bit.”

Clyde turned away from the mirror. “Just one thing I need to know.” He stepped in front of a passing shop assistant and smiled. “Is it easy to get… vinegar out of this?”

The assistant gave him a puzzled look. “Vinegar? I don’t see why not.”

“Thanks. Thanks, Rani.”

“No problem.” Rani grinned. “Now, there’s a couple more things I need to get and then we can go find some DVDs or something.”

“Sure. Where do you need to go?”

“Over there and upstairs.” Rani pointed. “And… I kinda want to do it by myself. No offence, Clyde, but I don’t know if I’m comfortable with you looking over my shoulder while I get some new underwear.”

“Yeah. Sure.” Clyde nodded, staring at the floor. “Of course.”

“I’ll only be ten minutes, I promise. I’ll meet you downstairs, yeah?”

Exactly ten minutes later, she found Clyde waiting beside the tills with his new jacket in a bag. He was leaning against one of the shop’s pillars staring at the huge perfume poster that seemed to take up half the wall.

“Oh yeah, Petrichor,” Rani said. “That stuff’s dead expensive. My dad got mum some for Christmas. She loves it.”

“Funny name,” Clyde remarked.

“It means the smell of dust after rain.”

“She doesn’t look dusty.” Clyde indicated the red-haired girl in the poster. “Or like she’s been in the rain. She’s hot though. She’s got a great mouth.”

Rani smiled and shook her head. “Mind out of the gutter, Clyde,” she told him. “She’s too old for you. And she’s married.”

“How do you know that?”

“Her name’s Amy Pond,” Rani replied. “Sarah Jane’s been wanting to do an interview with her since the perfume came out. I helped her with some of the background research.”

“I’ve got to start being nicer to Sarah Jane,” Clyde said. “If she gets the interview, do you think she’d let me come too?”

“In your dreams, Clyde. Now, come on, I’ve still got to pay for this stuff.”

Rani led the way back to the tills. As she stood in the queue listening to Clyde tell her the jacket was growing on him, she glanced over her shoulder at the poster one last time and re-read the tagline: _For the girl who’s tired of waiting_.

It was good advice.


	5. Couple

_After that…_

Rani slipped into Sarah Jane’s house and quietly climbed the stairs. She was almost hoping he wouldn’t be in the attic, but she’d tried everywhere else. Sure enough, nearly at the top, she heard voices.

“What do you think, Clyde?”

“I think it looks great, Sparky.”

“Clyde, I fail to see why Sky cannot practice art by drawing real fruit.”

Rani opened the door to see Sky and Clyde sitting around the central table looking carefully at what she was pretty certain was a bowl of fruit. Not that anything in the bowl was the right shape or colour to be from Earth, and as she watched, the whole arrangement flickered slightly.

“Because that’s boring, Mr Smith,” Clyde explained. “She can draw bananas in school.”

“Hello, Rani,” Mr Smith said.

“Hi.” Rani smiled. “Sky, do you want to go and show Sarah Jane your picture. I need to talk to Clyde.”

“Okay.” Sky picked up her sketch and jogged through the door.

Clyde looked up. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Are you well, Rani?” Mr Smith asked. “I am detecting an elevated heart rate.”

“Mr Smith, could you just give us a minute? Please?”

The holographic bowl vanished from the table and the alien supercomputer folded itself back into the wall.

“You alright, Rani?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Fine. The thing is…” She tailed off, took a breath and then started again. “The thing is…” She dropped into the chair where Sky had been sitting. “The thing is… you fancy me.”

Clyde’s eyes went wide, and he opened his mouth, hesitated, and before he could speak, Rani went on. “Just listen, okay? You’ve liked me since we met, I get that, but since… since a while now, it’s been different. You start telling me how nice I look, you give Luke a book for Christmas and you get me these gorgeous earrings, you care what I think of your clothes, you even start complimenting girls you’ll never meet just so you can see if I start acting jealous.”

“Rani…” Clyde began.

“Don’t, please.” Rani held up her hand. “I know you joke when you panic and I really, really don’t want you to try and be funny now. This is just me saying that I know, so you don’t have to keep pretending. It’s fine, okay?”

Then, without waiting for him to react, she straightened up, pivoted on her heel and strode towards the attic door, through it and down the stairs. She was half way down before she head him clatter after her.

“Rani, hang on!”

“I just want you to think about it,” Rani told him. “That’s all. Then… I don’t know, invite me to the Leaver’s Ball or something. If you want to.”

“But… that’s not till summer.”

Rani sighed, shook her head and continued down the steps. She was half way through the door when he caught up with her.

“Look,” she said. “I’m not the sort of girl to just bat her eyelashes and hope a boy notices. Everybody knows anyway. Luke doesn’t call us ‘Clani’ for nothing, all our friends know, anyone who’s seen that drawing must know, including my mum, your mum and Sarah Jane.”

“Your dad doesn’t know,” Clyde tried to smile. “I’m still walking around.”

“See, that’s what I mean about the jokes!” Rani snapped. “I just want a straight answer. I understand if you’re still thinking about Ellie, I do.”

“Ellie?” Clyde repeated. “What’s she got to do with this?”

“Just… tell me when you’re ready,” Rani said doing her best to smile, and pulled open the door.

Clyde followed her out, but she didn’t look back. Her hands were shaking. She barely glanced up as she ran across the road, heading for her own front door. She’d forgotten her keys so she had to ring the bell. When she glanced back, Clyde was still standing on the far side of the road, staring after her in utter confusion.

“Are you alright, my darling?” her mother asked.

She didn’t answer. Her father came out of the sitting room.

“Rani, what’s wrong?”

Her father rested a hand on her mother’s shoulder. Rani looked at her parents. Her parents, who’d met in a museum, but only because it was raining.

What if it hadn’t rained?

“I just…” she stammered. “I just forgot something… hang on.”

She turned around and ran back the way she’d come. Clyde was walking slowly back towards the door of number 13.

“Clyde, wait!”

He turned around. “What now?”

Without stopping to speak or think, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. A long, indescribable moment passed as the world turned upside down and then right way up again. And then she let him go.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I should have said. I fancy you too.”

Clyde’s expression slowly turned from confusion to happiness. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Clyde Langer!”

They sprang apart. Clyde looked up to see Haresh Chandra bearing down on them, and gave Rani a small, nervous smile.

“Well… it’s been nice knowing you.”

“Dad!”

“Just a moment,” Haresh told her, and then turned back to Clyde. “Do you have anything to say?”

Clyde looked up at him for a long moment, and then shook his head. “No.”

“No?”

“No, sir.”

Haresh held his gaze for another few seconds, and then his expression softened. “That’s the first time I’ve heard you pass up an opportunity to talk back, Clyde. Clearly my daughter is having a positive effect on you after all. Rani, if you need anything…”

“Thanks dad,” Rani smiled at her father and took a step closer to Clyde. “I’ll be fine.”

Haresh nodded and turned towards his front door. “And no holding hands on school grounds!” he called behind him.

Clyde grinned. “Yes, sir!”

Rani slipped her arm through Clyde’s. “Come on. Let’s go watch everyone pretend to be surprised.” Then she hesitated. “You do want…”

Clyde smiled at her, glanced over his shoulder, pulled her behind Sarah Jane’s hedge out of full view of the street, and kissed her.

Several minutes later, Sky opened the door to their knocking. “Rani! Clyde! Did you finish your talk?”

“Yeah, we did,” Rani told her.

Sky smiled, and gave them another glance. “Do boys sometimes wear lipgloss too?”

As Clyde started scrubbing at his mouth with the back of his hand, there were footsteps on the stairs. “They do sometimes, Sky,” said Sarah Jane, taking off her glasses.

“Hi.” Rani smiled up at her.

“You’ll have to tell Luke immediately,” Sarah Jane told her. “He’ll never forgive you if you keep him waiting. And I can tell him he owes me a fiver.”

“Eh?” Clyde exclaimed.

“My son had his money on you, Clyde.”

“Oh. Okay…”

“How did you know?” Rani asked.

Sarah Jane wrapped her arms around both of them. “The next time you want to have a… personal conversation, remember the attic isn’t soundproofed and it’s just above my office. And sound carries very well on the stairs.”

“Alert! Alert!” Mr Smith’s unnervingly calm voice filtered through the house. “Judoon transmat detected!”

“Oh, see what I mean!” Sarah Jane sighed, letting them go. “Luke will have to wait. Come on, Sky, we’d better see what this is about!”

Sarah Jane turned and hurried towards the attic with Sky scrambling after her. Clyde and Rani stayed where they were for just a moment, and then looked down to where there hands had intertwined. They smiled excited, hopeful smiles, and then ran up the stairs together.

**The End**


End file.
